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Swarm Fall 15-13 At Philadelphia

Callum Crawford scored eight points for Minnesota

Philadelphia – The Swarm (6-8) could not win their fourth consecutive game Sunday afternoon in a 15-13 road loss to the Philadelphia Wings (6-8), but another streak continued.

Callum Crawford tallied four goals and four assists to score more than eight points in five consecutive games. The Dowling College product has amassed 44 points (17g, 27a) during the span and has also tied his single game career-high of 10 points twice. Crawford now has 80 points on the season, good for fifth in the NLL. Even more impressive, the Ottawa, Ontario native missed two games earlier this season, but is still among the league leaders in scoring despite limited playing time.

"Callum's the leader on our right side and he did exactly what he needed to do tonight," head coach Joe Sullivan said. "Unfortunately we didn't score by committe today, which is soemting we have been doing in our past three games."

Another Swarm veteran, Ryan Benesch, contributed on the day as well, finishing with five points (1g, 4a). The Kitchener, Ontario native has 78 points on the year for second-best on the team.

Rookies Brock Sorensen, Kiel Matisz, and Shayne Jackson were selected consecutively in the first round of the 2012 NLL Entry Draft and all three made their presence known in the game. Sorensen had an assist, five loose balls, and two forced turnovers while Matisz found the back of the net four times and dished out an assist for a fourth quarter Crawford goal. Jackson, less than 24 hours removed from a career-high eight point effort, chipped in with four points (2g, 2a).

Jay Card had a SportsCenter Top-10 worthy goal to close out the first half. The second-year forward crossed midfield and rocketed the ball past Wings goaltender Brandon Miller with just over a second left in the quarter to give Minnesota an 8-6 halftime lead.

Although Minnesota was not able to come away with the Sunday afternoon victory, it was not due to a lack of efficiency on the Power Play. The team was 6-for-8 on the day and 14-for-18 on the weekend.

“We’ve got a couple of different looks (on the power play) and when you have that advantage it makes other teams adjust,” Sullivan said. “When you’re predictable it’s tough to get goals and good looks, but when you change it up it makes them change the way they play you and we’re tending to get better looks.”

Swarm transition player Jordan MacIntosh had three assists in the contest to go along with a season-high 18 loose balls. MacIntosh finished 23-for-32 (72%) on face-offs.

Tyler Hass collected 11 loose balls on the day as he and Dan Ball forced three turnovers each.

After an action-packed back-to-back weekend, Minnesota will look to get back on the winning track against division rival Colorado Mammoth (6-8) April 13 at the Pepsi Center.

One week after that match-up, the two teams will meet again to finish the regular season on Treasure Island Field at Xcel Energy Center. Both teams are fighting for playoff position in a strong West Division.

"It's gut-check time," Sullivan said. "I see an opportunity now going into this next weekend against Colorado where our hands will be full and our guys will be pushed like they should be at this time of year."

Single Game Tickets start as low as $21 for all eight home games in 2013. For purchasing information on both Season and Single Game Tickets, fans can call 1-888-MN-SWARM or visit mnswarm.com